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Tuesday, October 25, 2011

The first and the last successful "Grind-MMO"

The last few days I have tried out a few MMO:s that I should have, but never earlier have, played. The first one on my list was Age of Conan. The game lacks, at least initially, interesting ways to grind your way up in levels. Most things was just running from A to B without any real purpose. Then today when I tried Warhammer Online I realized that this game had a much better system for grinding. Although for me it is not much different than grinding in World of Warcraft.

Anyway, today I will discuss what I believe is the first big Grind-MMO and what I believe might be the last.

The first was Ultima Online!

Origin Systems masterpiece. This is the first MMO that I ever played and apart from EVE Online this is the MMO that has brought me most joy. It was a very open, free, but also punishing game, just the way I like it. It makes you actually focus and take care of your every moment.

In the future I think many companies need to look back on this game, that might have let people grind in a different way than people do today, but still has a lot of interesting design parts that can be re-used and optimized.

The last is Star Wars: The Old Republic?

This is a long shot, I know, but the time of grinding based MMO:s are dying. After World of Warcraft everything seems just the same to me, just with different graphics. We need something fresh. SWTOR offers good opportunity for role play and makes the game become more like a movie... but it is still based on the very same Grind and PVP game play we are all used to and a little bit tired of.

Let's finish off this blog post with a glimpse of the past. Who remember this old trailer? It is amazing how they tried to make sense of the "multiple servers" issue for the roleplaying perspective on the game.